Vote Tabled on Walter Friend

The majority of the Town Board has voted to table the proposal by the Supervisor to hire Anthony Coates as a legislative assistant at the salary of $65,000 per year.  Coates appears to be a friend of Supervisor Walter and may have been helped by Walter through periods of alcohol related rehab.

Board members Giglio, Gabrielsen and Wooten would not approve the additional hire while only Walter and John Dunleavy voted yes.  Wooten suggested that since the Town had only recently terminated employee positions for budgetary reasons, he didn't feel it was appropriate to make a new hire.

Meanwhile comments to the editor in the Riverhead Review also indicated disfavor with the idea with local resident Greg Fisher offering to provide similar experience and expertise as that offered by Coates.

Port Jeff Breaks Through the Cap

The trustees of Port Jefferson Village have voted to overturn the State mandated 2% budget cap increase and will now attempt to increase village taxes above the 2%..  The NY State law which mandates the 2% cap on all budget increases permits a municipality or school district to exceed the cap by a vote of 60% of the residents or in this case, a vote by the trustees of an Incorporated village.

The Mt. Sinai School Board is also considering a vote to exceed the cap in an effort to impose an 8% school tax increase.  What is not clear in this matter is whether the 60% of the votes needed is calculated against total votes cast or against voter rolls.  

Manning, Tebow, Colts, Jets.....makes you dizzy.

Not clear to me why Denver would sign Peyton Manning to a fat contract when the Colts had just cast him adrift because of recent surgeries.  Then again why would the Jets sign Tebow (who is a better QB than anyone is giving him credit for) when they just signed Sanchez to a 3 year extension.  

Why didn't the Colts find a way to keep Manning until they could really determine whether he was healthy enough to play?  They could have gotten around the $28 million dollar bonus due Peyton by naming him interim coach.  He ran the offense anyway.  Young coaches in the NFL are not unusual.  Think Madden.

Of course, one could speculate forever on this one and as someone once said, 'its always about the money."